Unfairest Lord Jesus

There’s a reason that Thanksgiving is an American holiday. I mean, besides the fact that it started here. (Man, way to bomb my opening line…) If you want to really learn about being thankful, spend a couple Thanksgivings in some other places in the world. I don’t know what it is about this holiday, but it seems like I’m never around for it. I’ve spent a Thanksgiving in Peru, one in Ukraine, one in London (and somewhere else that day, too), and now one in China.  

I’m probably not too much of a patriot, but I think I appreciate the best things that the United States has to offer. For example, if you didn’t eat rice today, it’s probably because you’re from one of the world’s richest countries. Or because you’re such a poor African that you can’t even afford that. Another example: if you hadn’t been born in America, your chances of hearing the Gospel, attending a Bible-believing church, having your own copy of the Bible would have been severely decreased. That alone makes for sufficient reason to get excited about God sticking us where he did – part of a privileged 4% or so of the world’s population. 

So, no doubt about it, I’m thankful for where I was born. Probably not enough, but God has let me see places where two cars and a TV are more than “just making it” and where the Gospel is about as popular as a root canal. So while you’re giving thanks, make sure you take some time to ponder why on earth God decided to give you so many blessings. I’m not saying you don’t deserve them. I’m just not sure why the millions of people in my city don’t deserve them. I don’t always understand why God lets me eat a feast today while some kid starves to death in Africa. Why I get to rejoice in a loving Father, a glorious Savior, an eternal salvation, and a heavenly home while some old man in this city will fall into a Christ-less eternity tonight, having never heard so much as a whisper of the Gospel.  

For all the whining I do about God not being fair sometimes, His apparent unfairness is one of the things I’m most thankful for. That He was unfair enough to give me a Christian home in a nation full of churches. Unfair enough to give me a chance to hear the Gospel. Unfair enough to never let me go hungry. Unfair enough to give me health, happiness, and purpose. It’s pretty much the definition of “grace”: God being unfair… in our favor! 

And that’s pretty much the greatest dream that I could ever have for a ministry here: that God would let us bring the riches of His unfairness to others. Maybe in the future, there will be many more Christians in this same city praising God for His glorious unfairness!